Modelling and painting the marines of the Taurii

Hi, it’s Olvebanipal again, now here to share how I modelled my first 20 marines.

So, you’ve seen some pictures of my marines now. Perhaps you’ve wondered where the different bits come from. When I decided to start a new Warhammer army, I wanted my own chapter. I’ve gone through that in previous posts. Therefore, I counted all the leftovers from my space wolf sprues, and saw that I could make at least ten new marines, if I just bought some torsos, backpacks and legs.

This guy looks like
he made his own helmet.
Greenstuff to the face!

I searched different suppliers online, and came over a look that I liked. Anvil Industries had decent prices and the right feel to their bits. I ordered 20 pairs of shoulder pads for tactical marines and ten for terminators, since I had ten space wolf terminators laying in sprues. I also ordered some backpacks, legs and torsos. The plan was to build ten cheap tactical marines… yeah right!

Marines in the 41^st millennium have a wide variety of armour marks, and therefore I simply bought a box of ten tactical marines. After sitting for hours on Battlescribe, trying to make cool, but competitive lists for 40k, I gave up. Adrian and Bjørnar simply said: “Then play 30k, for fucks sake!”

The vexilla has an
even more weird
helmet, but I like him.

YEEEEEEES!! I felt as if I were free! The room was filled with butterflies, rainbows, unicorns, and gritty dark shadows of ancient gods, forgotten secrets, occult whispers and eldritch horrors!

YEEEEEEEEES!!

This left me with a small problem. My tactical marines’ armour were in many instances anachronistic. After searching the internet for some answers, I simply sharpened my knife and bought some greenstuff. “I’ll make my own mark, GODDAMN YOU!!” The purists among you will maybe find my solutions crude and simple, but I kind of like it. Especially since it meant I didn’t have to buy the ones made from ivory and stardust from Forge World. Yes, I know. I’m a bloody peasant.

I'm happy with the way
my first sergeant turned
out. 

Since I wanted to make them look like space romans, I also made tunicas for them. I don't use the roman theme anymore, but it certainly make them stand out.

I am no expert modeller. I am at best a happy amateur, but I hope you can find inspiration in this first adventure of mine into the universe of the 31^st millennium.

Links:

Anvil Industries

Battlescribe

Walk in His shadow!

-          Olvebanipal

The Blue Man Group

Hi, what's up,

Bjørnar here, and I've painted more Ultramarines!

The first squad of 10 is nearing completion, sans weathering and some minor details. I'm looking at having two squads of ten in rhinos as my troops choices for this army, that will end up around 2500 points. The sergeants get power swords, melta bombs and artificier armour, of course. I had some spare Mk3 torsos left over from the death guard, so I just used those.

As I wrote earlier, I based the blue armor on the Painting Buddah tutorial form YouTube that I linked in my first post. I mention bastardizing the scheme, and by that I mean that I used mostly the same colors but skipped a lot of the time consuming glazing. I don't use an airbrush, but I whipped out a wet-palette for this project. I'll break it down.

BAD ASS ULTRAMARINE POWER ARMOUR:

From a black undercoat, I basecoat the armour with Kantor Blue from Games Workshop. After a line-shading of Nuln Oil, I tidied the model back up with a new pass of Kantor blue.

Then I mixed in a little Teclis Blue and glazed on the highlights where I figured light would catch the armour. Much like you would get if you airbrushed it with zenithal-ish highlighting (which I don't) from above and to the left of the model.
Highlights were then slapped on with a few passes of so thinned down Teclis blue that Duncan Rhodes would totally high five me if we were in the same room. I mixed in Vallejo Model Air light Sea blue for the final highlights. So. just a few colors, but several thin layers and some glazing where the transitions were too stark.      

For weathering, I'll probably go with just some painted on chips and some glazes on the lower part of the legs, much like Painting Buddah's tutorial. If you take a look at the dude at the left in second row, you'll see that I've started a little with the chips. They are pretty fast to do, you just put down a little line or chip-shaped blob of the highlight colour (for me this is Vallejo model air light sea blue) and mix some black with dark brown (rinox hide for me) for the actual chip, leaving just a little of the highlight color where the light would catch it. Dont overthink it, and don't overdo it.

I call this look "Blue Steel"

When he is not pursuing his modelling career, Sergeant Killfucker enjoys curbstomping xenos and traitor marines alike, flaunting his ridiculously good looks. Again, the face is painted with just a few colours, but it's a couple of thin layers that makes it look good (if I can say so myself. And I just did).I basecoated it with Ratskin Flesh, did a wash of Reikland Flesh, before going back with the basecolor, mixing in more and more Pallid Wytch Flesh for highlights. I wanted a bit more contrast in the face, so I painted a little Agrax Earthshade in the deepest recesses.

For the stubble I did a few glazes of Ratskin Flesh, mixed with a little Mechanicus Standard Grey .
Again, the awesome Dunchan Rhodes did a great little tutorial in the Warhammer TV YouTube advent calendar.  

I did try to paint his sword following another advent tutorial for Grey Knights nemesis force weapons, but I could not pull it off due to a funky groove that runs down the middle of this particular sword. In the end, I used mostly the same colors as Duncan, but kinda wet-blended/glazed it up from darker to lighter. A little homage to 90's 'Eavy Metal swords if you would.

So, I'm waiting for some Dreadnought close combat arms and a Leviathan from Forge World (The order has been pending since the 18th, I'm guessing they have their hands full theses days). In the meantime I'll get cracking at a Fulmentarus Terminator Squad. Yeah, that's right. 5 of the baddest of asses, ALL sporting frikking Cylcone Missile launchers! You heard me. Cyclone Missile launchers.

"

"What Perturabo, you mad brah?"

I got ten of these bad boys from Spellcrow Miniatures. Fits the Cataphractii Terminators like a frikking glove. Comes highly recommended. Great casts, quick delivery. Pretty cheap as well.

Ok, peeps, I'll get back to you when I've painted the whole squad. Then it's on to either a Contemptor or a Primaris Lightning Strike Fighter. Can you say "Kraken Penetrator Missiles"? BOOOOOM!

Starting to write

Hi

Bjørnar, to the left, trying to cheer
me  up after I've seen his glorious
ultramarines

I've changed name since last time, but I guess you already discovered that. This time I'll talk a bit about how I started to write the fluff for my version of the missing second legion.

As I said last time, I had several other attempts at writing the background for my legion. First I sent them to my pals, who gave me some tips, and then I posted it on the heresy forums.

Hobby tip: Make an account on http://heresy30k.invisionzone.com/, people there are very helpful and inspiring. Most of the painted armies they have posted, make mine look like trash.

Especially Uberlord Gendo helped me establish the second legion as a Mesopotamian-themed army. This reception was what made me want to write more, but first I had to begin anew. 

Hobby tip: Just write! The only way to gather your thoughts and ideas into sensible structures is through writing. Listen to inspiring music and write!

This little guy is the actual author behind the Sisters of Battle.
Do like him. Have an inspiring statue or something nearby.

Now, listen to this, while you read the rest of the text. 

The Taurii

The story of the second legion starts during the unification wars on Terra. Most of the legionnaires were recruited from the Achaemenid Empire and the tribes of Gyptus. They quickly adopted the Achaemenid way of fighting, which relied on large amounts of skirmishing bikes and jetbikes, screening an armoured spearhead.

Taurii sergeant
Post-reuinon with Apis

Legio 2 quickly were given the name Taurii, from the strength of their armoured assault, but also because of a rare, genetic flaw, which made some legionnaires grow horns. The name was used to describe their martial strength, but also their stubborn, almost bull-headed behaviour in battle, and their shameful mutation.

It is difficult to say if it was the mutation or their conduct which made them outsiders amongst the legions; perhaps both. After the unification of Terra, few legions had close ties to the second, except from the Blood Angels and the Vlka Fenryka, which had their own flaw, although they never admitted it at the time. Those of the second with the mutation began filing down their horns, both for practical purposes, but also for hiding their shameful flaw.

During the first years of the Great Crusade, the Taurii were sent to subdue the Amorite Federation, a conglomerate of merchant republics. We can see the early military doctrine of the second during the battle of Kesh in this conflict. The Amorite Federation’s seats of power were concentrated in huge cities in vast deserts and plains, and the Taurii understood that a drawn out siege of these cities would be far too costly. Therefore, Ashur Tiglatus, their designated commander at the time, ordered the light cavalry of the legion to harass and goad the wealthy merchants out of their ivory towers.

The rest of the legion were either waiting under the sand dunes, or in orbit, where they could strike when needed. Weeks went by, and the Amorites became annoyed with the constant attacks by jetbikes, landspeeders and bikes. The legion refused the spoiled nobility their precious sleep, and since the Amorite scouts (which the legion had let through the blockade on purpose) did not find any large force of astartes, the merchants struck.

The great gates of the cities of the Amorite Federation opened, and legions of disciplined mercenaries with gaudy armour marched out into the plains. Their speeders and bikes engaged with the light cavalry of the Taurii, and seemed to drive them into the desert, where the Amorite scouts had located the legion scout camps. As the Amorite mercenaries pushed into the desert, the legion cavalry engaged them constantly, keeping them always on guard.

The scorching sun took its toll, and the mercenaries were thirsty and tired. In the oasis, called Kesh, the armies of the different Amorite cities joined forces. By then, their gallantry had worn off. In the distance, they suddenly heard soft thumps, heralding the coming of artillery bombardment. All hell was upon the mercenaries. The shells from the hidden legion artillery tore great, bloody holes in the Amorite ranks. Their transports and tanks were in disarray, as the incoming rounds seemed to come from all around them.

Then, legion Spartans and Land Raiders burst from the sand dunes. They aimed for the weak points in the huge enemy formation, and cut deep into the Amorite host. The transports disgorged legionnaires armed for close combat, if they did not cut through the entire formation. This part of the strategy later became known as “the thrust of the spear.” In the field of Kesh, the moral of the Amorites was already at breaking point when the heavy cavalry of the Taurii attacked. Met with the full might of an imperial legion, their spirit was shattered. With the destruction of their mercenary armies, the Amorite Federation surrendered to Ashur Tiglatus, praetor of Legio II Taurii.

The Taurii were often cruel in victory.

PS: I have no idea why the font suddenly changed. Cursed machine spirit! I must have forgotten to apply the correct ointment.  

Heresy Act I

One of my two Leviathan dreads (built from a Dreadknight and Dreadnought).

Hi all!

Mr. P in the house. First of I would say that i'm both excited and terrified of this new hobby venture in to the blog-world! And I feel stoked to be part of this gang of bloggers. :)

Started with Warhammer 16 years ago, took a 10 year break from the hobby and came back in with the arrival of my son in 2013. My last project in 2003 was a larger Tau Empire force which got shelved and brought back into the light again (not much had changed with the Tau in all that time).

Since coming back to the hobby I have been heavily involved in the competitive scene in Norway and participate in most of the major events (with some mixed results). The 40k rule set is as it is and that is just something that you have to accept. I have come to enjoy every part of the hobby, both casual and competitive play, and just can't get enough.

My part of this blog will be mostly build/paint and gaming oriented. For 2016 I have a couple of goals, first of my newly started Blood Angels force will be to get them more 30k modified rather than 40k related.

Secondly I will revise a set of new terrain for my desert wasteland FAT mat with the picture below as my initial inspiration. Got one set 96% finished for my other FAT mat (Urban city), and I plan to showcase that in another installment.

My old table, still got the pieces.

Until next time!

Mr. P out.

Introducing the Death Guard and Ultramarines

Hello you savages!

So I'm Bjørnar and what you can probably expect from me are posts showing the development of my new Horus Heresy army - The Ultramarines. I say probably, because I have a short attention span when it comes to the hobby, and I often jump between projects. This is something I'm planning to address in a later post. Probably.

I've been Horus Heresy-curios since the first big book dropped from Forge World, but meeting another player in Trondheim that also was into it sealed the deal. Seeing Adrian's awesome Mechanicum army had me all over the Death Guard like Connor McGregor on a press conference. Expect to see some posts about them as well (including this one, it seems).

"Surprise, cockfags!"

Mortarion's Stag Party, featuring Deathshrouds,
Typhon and a Primus Medicae, putting the heavy
weight division on notice.

My Death Guard features a lot of heavy armor, artillery tanks, the option to take a lot of footsloggers and of course the Main Man himself with a Stag Party of his Bestest Dudebrahs in a Spartan Assault Tank

The army, like a lot of Death Guard armies, is painted with a lot of weathering, using sponging, pigments, some oils, washes etc etc. It turned out looking quite drab so I've tried to introduce more color in the weathering and some of the weapons and such (still a work in progress).

Playing this army has seen me pushing scary shit up the middle of the table inside a spartan supported by artillery and longer range fire. Plans for the future include doing the mandatory zombie Cult allied detachment, and introducing more daemon stuff as we're getting closer to the Siege of Terra.



So, with the new Betrayal at Calth box I knew I had to get cracking on my next marine army. But if I was to start another army, it had to be one that was decidedly different from the Death Guard. Visually, so painting-wise, it had to provide me with new challenges and to push me to learn new techniques. It was also important for me to build an army that played to different strenghts than Mortarion and his merry men.

I looked at Raven Guard, Alpha Legion, Iron Warrio....you know, this is getting stupid. I was looking at all of them at one time or another, writing lists, surfing the shit outta the Heresy 30K forum, the most excellent blog that is A Galaxy In Flames and listening a lot to podcasts (The Eye of Horus podcast in particular).

But in the end I was won over by the idea of taking on the Ultramarines. In particular, I was taken by the idea of making a striking, yet brutal and remorseless Ultramarines army. An army that combines Assaulting, Shitkicking Walkers with Guerrilla-Themed Tactical Elements (SHIT YEAH!). An army that is so up in your grill that the World Eaters go "Hot Damn, I thought WE had issues!". Not Space Smurfs but Man Marines. Killfuckers. Apocalypse Dudes.

In my book, nothing says shitkicking like Contemptor dreads with dual claws and graviton guns. And a Leviathan. So that's coming up. But let's start at the beginning. The Betrayal at Calth set. And some regular dudes in yet shiny armor.

"I'm still a bit shiny, but I WILL stab you." 

  

"

"We're all gonna stab you!"

The scheme is a bastardization of the scheme featured in the excellent series by Painting Buddah. Go on, give those guys some love. Of course I had to cut some corners, but I guess that's what my next post will be about.

So! If you made it this far, thanks for reading. I hope you will join me as we dwelve into the Death Guard, Ultramarines and whatever else strikes my fancy as we go along.

The road to Legio II

This is Olvebanipal again. Back for some tips on how to write your legion fluff.

As I said in my first post, I decided to make my own legion. One of the greatest parts of the 40k lore is that there are three legions which we don’t know anything about. Even though Warhammer Horus Heresy, or 30k as I will begin to refer to it as, is a historical miniatures game within the lore of the Warhammer universe, the missing legions can be used to go around the strict rules of established fluff.

I’ve studied history, so I know all about how accuracy is important in popular culture for us nerds. I can rant on about the inaccuracies of the TV show Vikings or be furious about the portrayal of the birkebeiners in the coming, Norwegian movie with the same name. That does not, however, keep me from enjoying these films. I believe that many fans of the lore of the Horus Heresy is equally frustrated when they see armour marks, tanks and iconography which do not belong in that period.

My legion started as a chapter in 40k, inspired by the roman legions. As you know, that is basically what the writers of the HH novels did, but I was in love with the whole space marine legionnaires mixed with human auxiliaries-theme. When I then went back to write about the primarch of these guys, the theme suddenly changed.

The amount of wololo in this screenshot
would make my headphones catch fire.

I’ve been interested in ancient history since I was a kid, and one of the places that struck me as mysterious and fascinating was the ancient near east. The original Age of Empires also did its part in this interest. The Assyrians, Babylonians, Sumerians and Hittites were some of the factions you could play in this old classic. In my teens I began to listen to the band Nile, and their atmosphere certainly influenced the feel of the background of my legion.

So, I went through several versions of the primarch’s origin story. Some of my friends, now a part of this blog, gave me tips and helped me make the fluff fit with the canon. I was still undecided about the iconography and name for the legion. Adrian had earlier bought nail decals from eBay for his imperial knights, and that made me look for legion symbols among a throng of flowers, puppies, horses and hearts.

This is the actual decal I ordered.
My legion of princesses shall be
victorious!

Hobby tip: Buy nail decals from eBay. It’s a super way to get cheap markings for your miniature army.

Anyway, I searched for different animals, Rhino, Elephant, Lion, Bear, Snake, Bull… Bull... I found a simple, decal of a bull’s head. “This will do”, I thought.

Well…

Now I kind of regret it, because my legion with the colour scheme and iconography became very similar to the Forge World Minotaurs chapter. But I say to myself: “There is no Minotaurs chapter. This is the 31^st millennium.”

So the second legion, because the eleventh is too hard to pronounce, was named the Taurii, which I later found out should be Tauri, but hell… if GW can use bastardized Latin, so can I.

Hobby tip: Don’t be too quick to establish your army’s fluff. You will have to revise it. Ask friends and on forums. You don’t want to change it after you’ve converted your whole army to fit with a theme, as I did.

One of my first legionnaires.
I'll go more in debth about the
conversion in a later article.

So the primarch of Legio II Taurii was Apis, inspired by the… yes I know… Egyptian, not Mesopotamian, bull god. I use a lot of Egyptian names as well, so I’ve not bound myself to Mesopotamia.

Hobby tip: Don’t base your background too firmly on a real world culture. It may prove to be restricting instead of guiding.

Next time I’ll post the first part of the origins of the Taurii. Until then, please leave comments below if you have enjoyed this small introduction, or just want to share your experiences.

May Apis, King of Kings shine his light upon you.

- O    

PS:
Here is the trailer for the movie I mentioned: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf0zON29z3c

For you foreigners: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birkebeiner
Here is a link to the nail decal page: http://www.yrnails.com/bull-head.html

O

Hi

I’m O, one of the founding fathers of this, soon to be, great blog. I drank the cup of temptation that is Warhammer 40k just two years ago, so I’m relatively new to the hobby. In this time I have collected a decent Imperial Guard force and a contingent of Space Wolves in drop pods.

I found out, after a year or so, that the competitive meta of 40k was not for me. I’ve never been much of a power gamer in anything, but it would have been ok if the codices were a bit more balanced. I’m not going to rant on about 40k, but the competitive, unbalanced power play was what brought me into Forge World’s Horus Heresy, that and the fact that my friends had the same feeling about 40k.

As I am relatively new to the whole setting of the Warhammer universe, I did not know which faction to collect. Should I use my guardsmen as militia or solar auxilia? Should I read some novels, set in the Heresy? The answer was pretty simple: I want to make my own legion.

My contribution to this blog will be to explain how the process of making my legion was. I hope that you can use some of the things I have learnt, to make your own. I am still pretty far from completing the more detailed parts of the fluff, so you will also read about my plans and dreams for the future.

May He-Who’s-Horns-Pierceth-The-Shadow-Of-Blight keep you.

-        - O

So, what's all this then?

Welcome to the Northern Heresy! We are a smallish, but growing group of people who are trying our hand at Forgeworld's Horus Heresy miniatures wargames in our home of Trondheim, Norway. Now that our little circle is growing, we decided it was high time to get a blog through which to advertise our upcoming tournaments, leagues and campaigns.
Posting a few images here and there, writing the odd bit of fluff or including some tips and battle reports seemed like a good way to keep us motivated through the dry spells that all humans eventually suffer (bring on the bionics! Suffer not the weakness of the flesh!).

So, we sincerely hope that you'll enjoy reading our inane musings, judging our paintjobs harshly, rolling your eyes at our amateurish tournament formats and slap your foreheads in frustration at the horrid picture quality and poorly written battle reports. I know, I'm not any good at this false humility crap. We're the best, objectively speaking.